


New Beginnings

by Lily_Uzumaki23



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997), Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: M/M, Zack Fair Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-15
Updated: 2020-06-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:28:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24727504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lily_Uzumaki23/pseuds/Lily_Uzumaki23
Summary: Zack lives and he and Cloud talk about joining Avalanche...or my very own ZackLives! with a side of smut (because I can’t help myself) and what I believe their relationship would be like post-Crisis.
Relationships: Zack Fair/Cloud Strife
Comments: 7
Kudos: 59





	New Beginnings

**New Beginnings**

_“My life, a trait and not an error, written by fire on stone.”_

_-o-_

Zack stood reminiscing about the past and the years it had been since he had escaped Hojo’s lab with an unconscious Cloud in tow. He'd had this naive idea in his mind throughout their journey of the new life they would get to live-if they made it. Naive because of Shinra and how far they were willing to go with the horrors that they were capable of, back then, not even Zack could have predicted it. "Rogue experiments" they had labeled them. They had taken four years of their lives and then sent an entire army out to kill them when they had fought and survived. They had arrived at The Slums of Midgar, barely alive and with absolutely no recollection of how they had made it there.

“Here,” Cloud joins him on the balcony that their current living space around the Sector 3 area had come with, red mug in hand. Zack straightens up from his post with his elbows against the railings and grabs the mug with both hands, used to having lavender tea at night to make sleep easier.

“Thanks,” he looks up from the contents and his eyes lock in Cloud’s.

Features schooled into a neutral frown reflect fragile maturity at best and innocence shattered. Zack knows he fares no better. Things had changed, being betrayed by the same people that they had put their lives on the line for countless times and that they had sworn their loyalty to had broken some of their spirit, the reality that they had returned to far crueler than what they had been prepared to bear. Much like Cloud, there wasn’t a day his heart didn’t feel the heaviness of loss in the aftermath.

“Will you at least think about it?” the older man asks, drinking from the mug.

“What is there to think about?” Cloud asks. “It’s Shinra, Zack,” he says, as if that alone is enough to not question it and Zack sighs dismissively.

It _was_ Shinra which meant Zack knew exactly what they could do. All it took was Avalanche botching a mission and Cloud being the only (technically) SOLDIER amongst their group, Zack knew exactly where he could end up. They had lost enough. Yes, Cloud _was_ stronger, mako enhancements _had_ made him spurt in growth and in muscle mass. His fighting skills _had_ developed, whereas during his cadet days Zack had seen the potential of what he could become, Cloud now met and far exceeded those expectations having become a ruthless killing machine, delivering lethal after lethal attack, full heart in it as if he was owed for the time missed.

While the skill boost was great, Zack had also learned not to underestimate what the President of Shinra Electric Company was capable of if he were hard-pressed. In the past, Avalanche had had too many loopholes in their plans to take down Shinra and always ended up being overpowered. Not being able to fight alongside Cloud and at least have his back was also overkill for him.

Zack had not been spared the same fortune (if they could call being unconscious due to mako poisoning that) as Cloud. The bullet he took straight to the head had permanently damaged his temporal lobe, affecting his sensory memory. They had hoped the mako and Jenovah cells that had been injected into his bloodstream would help it piece itself together but recovery remained sorely lacking and magic could only do so much in matters of the brain without completely mangling it. At best, his coordination was still worlds off. Blindspots existed where his defense had been impenetrable before making him too unstable to be on the battlefield.

“I won’t be fighting their battle for them,” Cloud says softly but determined all the same. He knows joining Avalanche sounded much like he was martyring himself for a cause-for their cause-but he had his own agenda to make amends with. “I’m fighting for us.”

Zack gives him a soft-eyed look and a small smile. “I know Sunshine,” he drinks from his mug again. “I sure wish I could fight with you,” he shakes his head in frustration.

Cloud turns to fully face his raven-haired lover now, inspecting his sculpted features closely. His plump lips are slightly upturned like he’s fighting hard to hide his disappointment with one of his easy-going grins. Mako-infused eyes are filled with heaviness and regret. Of all the things Cloud knows about Zack, being self-deprecating is one of the things he knows his lover is not and he takes the statement as it comes. Cloud knows not being able to fight has been tougher on Zack than he lets on. He had the instinct without the functioning motor skills to match; it was like a hungry wolf that couldn't hunt. Cloud also knows when Zack speaks without words. Maybe it was the years in the lab followed by the years on the run while he laid helpless but Zack also trusts no one but himself where Cloud's life is concerned and it makes an overwhelming sense of gratitude wash over the blonde, to know that he had someone who would always come back for him, no matter what. He would do the same for him and suddenly he is assaulted by the realization that he would never feel for anyone how he felt for him.

“Hey,” the blonde calls softly and Zack, who had busied himself with staring out into the night so not to make his frustration known, responds with a

“Hn,” without sparing him a glance.

“Sleep with me,” Cloud says and that gets his attention.

The raven-haired ex-SOLDIER 1st Class turns to face him and gives him a charming, suave smirk before responding.

“Absolutely.”

_-o-_

For all he had lost in the line of duty, Zack’s intimate touches remain pure and unadulterated, always seeking to please him and Cloud finds he is still just as pliant under them. Zack just has a way with him, kissing him so intensely he can feel his life getting sucked out of him, hands all over his body slowly breaking his resolve away. Clothes are discarded, forgotten in a corner of their dark room only illuminated by moonlight. Cloud lays back on the bed as Zack towers over him on all fours with the grace of a hungry wolf. He spreads his legs inviting him in and Zack leans all in with his elbows on the mattress at either side of his head while he still keeps a little bit of distance between their pelvises.

They watch in unison as Cloud’s hands wander in between their bodies, running the palm of his hands through Zack’s already hardened nipples and Zack lets out a low hiss in between kisses he leaves down his jawline. Cloud leaves a burning trail as languid knowing fingers move down his ribcage and abs. Zack stops and watches entranced from above him as one of the hands stops at his hip while the other one closes around his semi-hard length and begins to pump him leisurely, wrist curling at the end just the way he knows Zack likes it. Zack’s brows wrinkle in pleasure, hips jolting into a small reflex thrust and Cloud’s other hand abandons his hip to bury into the hair at the nape of his neck and pulls him in for another kiss.

“Mnn…” Zack moans into the openmouthed kiss, fully thrusting into Cloud’s hand now.

“Feel good?” Cloud plays with the slit in between his thumb and index fingers making Zack let out a shivering breath.

“Too good,” he says, pressing his forehead against his and groaning when Cloud plays with the shaft again.

Cloud had also grown more confident and experienced in these matters, not that Zack was complaining, but compared to the virginal 16-year old from Nibleheim who was hard to get out of his shell and just as hard to convince to indulge in this type of activity before, it was a striking contrast--one he enjoyed--but striking all the same. He hovers over his side and presses his lips to his ear just as Cloud reaches with the other hand to gently massage his sac.

“Cocktease,” he whispers, to which Cloud responds,

“I want you,” completely unapologetic. Their eyes lock and Zack gives him his confident, bedroom half-grin.

“Oh you’re getting me,” he assures and it makes Cloud want him so bad it almost hurts.

Zack preps him carefully, copious amounts of lube making his fingers glisten as he stretches his hole and watches his face from in between his spread knees, curling his index and middle fingers in him from time to time, milking the bundle of nerves that makes Cloud twitch and moan inadvertently. When Cloud starts moving his hips to fuck himself on his fingers, Zack knows he is right where he wants him at. He pulls his fingers out and positions the head of his steely cock at his entrance then slowly begins to push in.

“Mnn Zack…” Cloud face contorts in pain but pleasure, legs closing around the small of his back and Zack shivers as he continues until he is sheathed completely in him. He shuts his eyes tight and rests his forehead against Cloud’s shoulder for a second because _fuck_ it always feels so good and he gives a few experimental thrusts and it feels even better and _fuck_ , he better not embarrass himself here.

He places his hands at either side of Cloud’s torso on the bed and uses his knees for leverage to pull back and push into him, slowly at first but Cloud just starts making those wildly erotic sounds, involuntary grunts get knocked right out of his chest, he’s holding on to Zack’s muscled arms and moving to match the rhythm of his thrusts and fuck. _Just fuck_. Zack goes harder, short and sharp jerks of hips make their skin slap loudly in between, he adjusts Cloud's legs on the inside of his elbows to open him more to him and lowers himself again to kiss his plump lips, Cloud’s hands burying in his hair to bring him even closer.

Cloud's aggressiveness still takes him a little by surprise when he is suddenly rolled over and made to lay on his back. His kisses are hungry and demanding and Zack lets him lead, the momentary takeover arousing him even more. They watch together as Cloud lowers himself on his hard rock dick again, Zack’s eyes roll back as the blonde rides him and he caresses the sides of his thighs encouragingly.

“Uhn baby…” Zack groans, panting his name.

Cloud bites his lip, leans forward to support his weight on his hands against Zack’s chest as he snaps his hips in smooth and fluid back and forth motions. He groans as Zack bucks and matches his thrusts, the raven-haired man watches his lover’s face slack with pleasure above him and he jerks him off with a hand, the other one squeezing his asscheek. Cloud lets out a particularly long groan and it drives Zack wild with need. He sits up and snaps his hips sharply, making Cloud jerk along with the rough movement. Cloud’s arms embrace him around the neck bringing him closer.

“Hah...just like that...” he breathes pleadingly into his ear and Zack holds his hips while he snaps his up repeatedly. Cloud lets out a strangled grunt with each trust because fuck it feels so good and he doesn’t want it to stop but he is also reaching his limit.

“Mmn Cloud,” Zack moans, hands moving to his asscheeks, then his hips, then the outside of his thighs around his own hips, then his lower back.

He reaches in between them to jerk him into completion and it doesn’t take long with how far ahead Cloud already was. Cloud moves along with his hand until spurts of cum start coming out in streams in time with his pulsating length, most of it landing on Zack’s chest and abdomen. He slumps against Zack just as Zack starts driving into him in an attempt to reach his own completion and he takes his cock all in, the feel of Zack rubbing hot and good inside of him milking weaker strings of cum out of him, his body still hypersensitive to touch after his release. He feels Zack squeeze his hips hard and grunt against his shoulder as he fills him to the brim with his seed and that makes Cloud moan against his shoulder.

So fucking amazing.

They struggle for breath still entangled in each other. Cloud kisses Zack on the forehead then presses his forehead to it as if to seal the kiss there forever. Zack kisses him, leisurely, and like always, he loses himself in it, the notion of where he is or what time it is completely lost on him.

Cloud knows Zack would never hold it against him, the suggestion alone would break him because Zack was as honest with his actions as he was with his words and Cloud was certain he would do it again, without question, a million times over if he had to, he loved him that much...but to Cloud, he would always owe him his life and so long as Shinra existed, he would feel indebted. So long as Shinra existed, there would always be someone that needed to pay for what was done to them.

“Look at us,” he whispers and Zack opens his eyes. “Look at what they made us give.”

Zack knows Cloud isn’t wrong. Shinra had turned their lives to shit and had come out of it none the worse for wear, every life they ended, all of the atrocities perpetrated neatly swept under a rug, never to be heard about or questioned. He wonders if, in the end, the lives they would save would balance out the lives they would have to take for the lives they had already lost and would make it all worth it. Already, it feels like they have lost so much and he isn’t just talking about years and experiences or even himself.

Killing comes so naturally to Cloud now it is bone-chilling.

It’s not just monsters. Some of it is damn near heartless, too. A clean battle scene would turn into a bloodbath in the blink of an eye. It was like no limits existed in his mind now. He didn’t just want to destroy Shinra, he wanted every abled body bearing their logo to pay then buried where they could no longer see the light of day and he would not rest until all of it was no more, whatever that took. If it meant joining Avalanche, then so be it.

They had been hearing talks lately about the organization around The Slums, people whispered things here and there all the way down to where they had settled in. Doing merc work throughout the Sectors, Cloud had been able to confirm that one of their possible lookouts was down in Sector 7 which they hadn’t been down to yet and he was dead set on getting there and joining.

“I can’t change your mind, Spike,” Zack says finally. He knows there is no world in which they can coexist with Shinra Electric Company. He also knows the only real shot Avalanche would ever have at taking Shinra Electric Company down is if Cloud joined them. “I’m coming with you...”

 **The End.** I always wondered what it would really be like if Zack had made it, what he would be like more than anything. In my mind, I always envisioned him becoming sort of a pacifist and I kind of wanted to write him out and see how it would turn out. I hope you liked it and that it was worth your time. Drop me a line! I love feedback or just plain conversation :)


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